When I call musician Jonathan Coulton and comic book writer Greg Pak, they’re sitting together at an undisclosed location somewhere in New York City: “our secret Code Monkey dungeon,” says Pak.

This morning, the duo launched a Kickstarter for Code Monkey Save World, a comic book series that combines the characters of Coulton’s songs into a single narrative universe (or as Coulton prefers to call it, the JoCoverse). Coulton fans will recognize “Code Monkey” as one of the singer-songwriter’s most internet-famous tunes (along with the Portal songs and a cover of “Baby Got Back” that the television show Glee liked just a little too much).

In the comic, which Pak plans to write with illustrations from artist Takeshi Miyazawa (Runaways), the lovesick, Fritos-chomping computer programmer of the song will be depicted as a literal monkey–and our hero. The object of his affections will also finally get a name: Matilda. Another character, Robo Queen Laura, was created by weaving together the narrative threads from several different songs.

“There’s a song called ‘The Future Soon,’ where a young nerdy kid who’s in love with this girl Laura fantasizes about a future where he will win her love by creating robot army and taking over the world,” said Coulton. “As Greg pointed out, that seems like it’s a prequel to ‘Skullcrusher Mountain.’ So that character – the boy in that song – could potentially grow up to be villainous genius in ‘Skullcrusher Mountain.’ What would happen to Laura under those circumstances? What would their relationship be like? That ties in very beautifully with “Chiron Beta Prime,” which is all about these robots, this robo-slave colony where robots have enslaved humans.”

For Pak, the writer of superhero comics like World War Hulk and The Incredible Hercules, combining the songs into an universe all their own “only made sense.” He’d met Coulton long ago when they were classmates at Yale University, and reconnected with the singer-songwriter more recently when he realized they were both living in New York City.

Screenshot: Wired

After downloading a bundle of Coulton’s songs to catch up on the work of his former classmate, Pak says he was struck by how many of them sounded like stories, full of really vibrant characters: hilarious, and quirky, and strange, and sad.” He suggested to Coulton on Twitter that the characters in his songs would make a pretty great supervillain team, to which Coulton replied, “DO IT.” The rest, says Coulton, “is future history.”

Rewards for fans who back the Kickstarter include an all-new song written by Coulton for the project, a digital “mixtape” of all the songs that inspired the book, sculpted Code Monkey figurines, and even a personalized voicemail message recorded by Coulton himself.

If the project is funded, the first issue of Code Monkey will be released in August, with three more issues following monthly and a self-published print collection sent to backers in November. The digital issues would also be released to backers first, and later go on sale in the ComiXology store through Monkeybrain Comics.

But if Code Monkey Save World doesn’t include a shoutout for your favorite Coulton song, fear not: the future of the JoCoverse is still wide open. “There are an endless number of stories that could be told,” said Pak. “If the Kickstarter is extremely successful, we may expand with the [comic] book–or use it as a launch-pad to do more things down the line.”